Vehicle axles of this type, in which the roll stabilizer is actuated directly by a wheel guide control arm, for example, by a tension rod or strut of the wheel suspension, are advantageous because it is possible in this manner to achieve especially a stabilizer transmission ratio of 1:1. In other words, this means that the inward deflection motions of the wheel are converted into a corresponding torsional motion of the stabilizer not only proportionally but to the full extent, and it is therefore possible to use, for example, correspondingly thinner or thinner-walled and hence lighterweight stabilizers. Furthermore, the mounting of the stabilizer can thus be made more flexible and hence more comfortable without worsening of the response characteristic.
Moreover, both the usual articulations of the stabilizer ends via a separate rocker pendulum with two ball and socket joints and the usual bent stabilizer legs are eliminated with this design, as a result of which weight is likewise reduced and a considerable amount of valuable space is made additionally available for installation.
However, considerable conflicts of goals in terms of design occur in the area of the connection between the chassis-side end of the wheel guide control arm and the respective associated end of the stabilizer in wheel-guiding stabilizer device of this type, as they are known, for example, from DE 10 2004 020 073 A1 or from EP 1 564 041 A2, because it is precisely in this area that conflicting design requirements of the otherwise separate components “wheel guide control arm” and “tension rod/strut” and “roll stabilizer”, which a stabilizer of this type continues to have to meet, clash with one another.
The functions and requirements that are relevant here include especially the most direct possible conversion of the inward deflection motions of the wheel into corresponding rotary motions of the stabilizer, and, furthermore, the power transmission from the wheel carrier to the chassis or to the axle carrier, as well as the specifically required flexibility and vibration damping on the path between the wheel carrier and the axle carrier or chassis.
The problem arising when the stabilizer and the wheel guide control arm are united in the wheel-guiding stabilizer device of this type is especially that even though soft rubber bearings and correspondingly high flexibilities in the area of the chassis-side connection of the wheel guide control arm to the axle carrier are advantageous for comfort mounting with good acoustic damping, they have at the same time a disadvantageous effect on the response characteristic of the stabilizer. To make matters worse concerning the coupling of the wheel guide control arm with the stabilizer end, the axis of rotation of the stabilizer extends in the transverse direction of the vehicle, whereas the axes of rotation of wheel guide control arms, especially the axes of rotation of the tension rods or struts that can be considered, extend, in general, at an acute angle to the longitudinal axis of the vehicle.
The connection area between the stabilizer end, the chassis-side end of the wheel guide control arm and the chassis or axle carrier must consequently guarantee, as much as possible, a defined, soft and vibration-damping introduction of the forces of the wheels into the chassis, but it must guarantee, furthermore, a possibly undamped, direct conversion of the inward deflection of the wheel into the twisting of the stabilizer, and at the same time it also must permit the angular changes occurring during the inward deflection between the longitudinal axis of the wheel guide control arm and the axis of rotation of the stabilizer.